55. In time, variations in the position of the partitions in some of the bays allowed for additional rooms sizes. For instance, a full bay could consist of one room of 152 square feet and a smaller one of 86 square feet. These variations were made to accommodate families of different size. In addition, the basic room of 120 square feet was some- times partitioned to make two small rooms for couples without children and for small groups of individual persons. There are thus many permutations of size, depending on the design of the block. The smallest room is 60 and the largest 360 square feet, the latter with its own. kitchen, lavatory, shower and private balcony. The original design has now been abandoned and the Public Works Department has produced a new one which is closely akin to the multi-storey buildings of the Government Low Cost Housing Programme (which are managed by the Housing Authority). This new resettlement block, known as Mark III when it has eight storeys and Mark IV when it has sixteen storeys, now replaces the older types of resettlement building, and up to 31st March, 1965, 114 Mark III blocks had been constructed in the new Kowloon estates of Yau Tong, Sau Mau Ping and Tsz Wan Shan, at Chai Wan and Tin Wan on Hong Kong Island, and at Kwai Chung in the New Territories. The new blocks differ fundamentally from the older design in that access to the rooms is from a central corridor on each floor. For the first time each room has its private balcony. Other improvements include the allocation of private lavatories shared between two or three families, in lieu of the previous communal latrines and bath-rooms, and the installation of power and light points in domestic rooms, hitherto a matter for the tenants to settle individually with a contractor. These innovations mean a considerable increase in comfort and living standards for new tenants. Construction of some Mark IV blocks, which because of their height will have staged lifts, also began in the period under review. Mark IV blocks incorporate a lavatory on the balcony of each room, marking a further advance in the steady improvement of resettlement accommodation.
56. The new estates will usually include mixed Mark III and Mark IV type accommodation. As in the old blocks, ground floor rooms can be used for shops and workshops, the only difference being that the new 'large' shops measuring 160 square feet will be smaller than the full-bay shops of 240 square feet previously available in the older estates, though the smaller shop units will be slightly larger than before (129 square feet instead of 120). These shops can be let in combination to provide larger premises. As with domestic rooms on the upper-floors,
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